Manchukuo was a puppet state set up by the Empire of Japan in Manchuria which existed from 1931 to 1945. The Manchukuo regime was established four months after the Japanese withdrawal from Shanghai with Puyi as the nominal but powerless head of state[1] to add some semblance of legitimacy, as he was a former emperor and an ethnic Manchu.
Manchukuo Politicians-Front row, from left: Yu Zhishan (於芷山), Minister of military affairs; Xie Jieshi (謝介石), Ambassador to Japan; Xi Qia, Chief of imperial household agency; Zhang Jinghui, Prime Minister; Zang Shiyi, President of the senate; Lü Ronghuan (呂榮寰), Minister of civil affairs; Ding Jianxiu (丁鑑修), Minister of industry. Rear row, from left: Yuan Jinkai (袁金鎧), Minister of Palatine affairs; Li Shaogeng (李紹庚), Minister of traffic; Ruan Zhenduo (阮振鐸), Minister of education; Zhang Yanqing (張燕卿), Minister of foreign affairs.
Government
Manchukuo was proclaimed a monarchy on 1 March 1934, with former Qing dynasty emperor Puyi assuming the Manchukuo throne under the reign name of Emperor Kang-de. An imperial rescript issued the same day, promulgated the organic law of the new state, establishing a Privy Council, a Legislative Council and the General Affairs State Council to "advise and assist the emperor in the discharge of his duties". The Privy Council was an appointive body consisting of Puyi's closest friends and confidants, and the Legislative Council was largely an honorary body without authority. The State Council was therefore the center of political power in Manchukuo. The organic law was largely an abridged version of the Imperial Japanese Constitution, with an important difference being the lack of any mention of civil rights and the increased authority of the Privy Council. As with all other aspects of Manchukuo, the government was purely ceremonial and existed to authenticate the puppet state rather than to rule the people of Manchukuo. True authority remained in the hands of the Kwantung Army.
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Organic Law of Manchukuo
Composition
Political parties and movements
During his administration, the Kangde Emperor, in an interview with foreign journalists, mentioned his interest in forming a political party with Confucian doctrines. The Japanese "native" establishment, however, organized some right-wing and nationalist parties, in the Shōwa militarist mould. Such movements, which had official status, were:
Nobusuke Kishi, Deputy Minister of Industrial Development, architect of the exploitative slave economy in Manchukuo, war criminal and later post-war Prime Minister of Japan
Chu Kudo, Chamberlain, aide-de-camp to Emperor Puyi
Yoshioka Yasunori Army senior staff officer and Attaché to the Imperial Household in Manchukuo
Kenjiro Hayashide official Kangde emperor biographer and author of "Epochal Journey to Japan"
^"Another League", The Straits Times, p. 6, 11 October 1932, retrieved 20 October 2023
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley (1996), The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, New York, pp. 282, ISBN 0-521-66991-X{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
